DVD De caravana

Juan Cruz, a photographer from Cordoba, Argentina, is asked by the magazine where he works to cover a concert by the local singing phenomenon Mona Jimenez, a man that attracts the lower classes of the city to his particular type of music. The young man sticks out when seen taking pictures of the crowds who flock the event.

In the crowd Juan Cruz discovers a beautiful woman, Sara. The photographer likes what he sees, the attraction being mutual. Sara ends up in Juan Cruz's house. The next morning, Juan Cruz is visited by Maxtor, a petty crime dealer who proceeds to take the computer where all the pictures were downloaded, plus his camera and some of the framed pictures he wanted to show at an art competition.

The visitor is accompanied by Sara and a transvestite, Penelope. They have a mission for Juan Cruz: he will cooperate in their illegal traffic. They want Juan Cruz to do some of their dirty work. The free lancer gets into a lot of hot water as he tries to break from the criminal element that have practically kidnapped him. Juan Cruz will experience a lot in a short time. The people he meets are clearly out of his world, but once involved, he is unable to get out easily.

This film from Argentine director, Rosendo Ruiz, was shown recently on a cable channel. The entire production was shot in Cordoba, a setting that is seldom seen in movies from that country because most creators concentrate in stories revolving around Buenos Aires. It appears to be an independent type of venture since it marked the debut for the director and most of the actors are based in the city where the action takes place.

Mr. Ruiz presents us with the world in which the music, dominated by a real life performer, Mona Jimenez, is explored. It is not exactly the type of sophisticated venue where people like Juan Cruz would gravitate, given the choice. This is a complicated tale in which the lower depths of that society is explored, with its clubs, peculiar music, in an atmosphere that most of us would not even know, but with a following, a sort of special scene.

The director has gotten good performances from his cast. Most of the actors were unknown to us. Most of them appear to be making their film debut as well. The best thing in the film is the climate created where crime, drugs, are things typical of the type of people that follow an unknown personality not well known even in popular culture.